This invention relates to musical instruments, and in particular to a device for use with any valved brass instrument to adjust the pitch of the note to conform to the scale of just intonation.
The notes of a melody are selected to produce consonance in the successive groupings of notes. The notes from which the selection can be made constitute a musical scale. Western music is composed from the diatonic scale, an eight note scale whose eighth note is a repetition of the first. There are actually two such scales, a major scale and a minor scale, and each is constructed from chords or triads of consonant combinations of notes whose frequencies are in certain empirically determined ratios. There is a varying, but patterned relationship between each successive note in each of these scales. A scale patterned exactly according to these frequency relationships is a scale of just intonation.
The key note is the starting point of the scale, and to accomodate different voices and different instruments, it is desirable to build scales upon several key notes. However, to perform a melody in the scale of just intonation of several key notes would require a large number of notes. It would be difficult to construct or to play an instrument that could produce the sufficient number of notes, and thus a scale has been developed with twelve notes with equal intervals between consecutive notes. This scale, known as the scale of equal temperament, can be divided into 1200 cents, with the interval between each note being 100 cents. Eight note scales approximating scales of just intonation can be constructed from the notes of the equal temperament scales, thus, the scale of equal temperament permits the musician to approximate the scale of just intonation, although there are perceptible differences.
The differences between the scale of just intonation and the scale of equal temperament were explained in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,804. There it was developed that for each note in the twelve note equal temperament scale to occupy each position in the major and minor scales of just intonation, ten adjustments in pitch would be required. These adjustments range between raising the note 18 cents and reducing the note 16 cents. It would be as difficult to provide these adjustments as it would be to construct and play an instrument in the scale of just intonation. However, it was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,804 that by providing three conditions: a plus sixteen cents, a normal, and a minus 14 cents adjustments, an instrument playing in the scale of equal temperament can much more accurately approach the scale of just intonation. In fact, the maximum deviation from any note would be four cents on the plus side and two cents on the minus side.
In valved brass instruments, to which the present invention pertains, the musician's lips excite the column of air in the instrument, which responds by resonance. The air column vibrates at a constant rate determined by the length of the tube. Different notes of the equal temperament scale can be played by varying the length of the tube, which is accomplished by actuating the valves to add lengths of tubing. Minor adjustments, such as to conform the notes of the equal temperament scale to the scale of just intonation, could be made by a technique called lipping, but this results in loss of resonant tone quality and disturbance of the ideal playing embouchure, or position of the mouth on the mouthpiece.
Minor adjustments could also be made by slight adjustments in the length of the tubing. Valved brass instruments do, in fact, have a tuning slide crook by which the tuning of the instrument can be adjusted. However, until the invention of the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,804, there was no practical device to accurately raise or lower the pitch of individual notes in a series to conform to the scale of just intonation under actual playing conditions. Cumbersome devices for changing the key of instruments by manipulating the tuning slide crook or other slide crooks were known, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 622,820, 828,273, 1,003,049, and 3,433,114. However, these could not be used to successfully change notes to the scale to just intonation, but merely raised or lowered all the notes played. Other gadgets have been made that adjusted the pitch of the notes by adjusting slide crooks, but despite their complexities and difficulty of operation they did not provide a way to accurately adjust the pitch according to the scale of just intonation. Some of these devices provided a means for adjustment, which the musician made by ear, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 550,967, 1,662,076, and 2,738,696. Some of these devices acted only on certain notes for a special purpose, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,103 shows a device to flatten notes involving the first valve. Finally, most of these devices were limited to trumpets or cornets and did not solve the adjustment problem for other valved brass instruments.
Clearly, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,804 was the first device for all valved brass instruments to provide a simple, practical way to adjust all notes in either direction to conform to the scale of just intonation. This was accomplished by providing a simple actuating device to move the tuning slide crook having preselected stopped, raised, and lowered positions, so that by operating the device between three positions; the raised, lowered, and normal positions, all the notes of the scale of equal temperament could be conformed to the scale of just intonation within a mere plus for cents or minus two cents.
The present invention is an improvement upon my prior device. The present invention, like my prior device, is adaptable to any valved brass instrument. This new invention is particularly suitable for installation on any instrument, as it need only be attached to the tuning slide crook and the fixed tube in which the tuning slide crook is slideably mounted.
The invention comprises a rod which is mounted to the tuning slide crook of the instrument and slideably mounted to a fixed portion of the instrument so that by sliding the rod, the tuning slide crook can be adjusted. This invention, like my prior device, includes stops that limit the movement of the rod and, thus the tuning slide crook, to preselected inward and preselected outward positions, to raise or lower the note played a predetermined amount. However, this invention also includes means for biasing the rod and tuning slide crook to the normal position. This means includes separate means for biasing the rod and tuning slide crook from any inward position to the normal position and means for biasing the rod and tuning slide crook from any outward position to the normal position. Because of these biasing means, the tuning slide crook cannot be inadvertently or accidentally moved from the normal position. Furthermore, these means act to form a definite normal position, which makes restoration to the normal from a more inward or outward position faster, easier, and more accurate. The separate biasing means are arranged so that while one is operating, the other does not operate or oppose its operation. This makes the automatic return to the normal position very fast, since the movement is not opposed, and thus, the device can be used to adjust individual notes in a series. Another improvement of this invention is the provision of a highly adjustable actuating means so that operation of the device will not interfere with the musician's established method of holding and playing the instrument. Still another improvement is the provision of nylon or other polymeric material washers on the contact surfaces to silence the operation of the device.